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37
overarching vision. Deller’s piece was not constructed in this way and did not
conceptually identify with this course of action. It is unclear how a work dealing
with such a current issue like the political and military conflict in Iraq could
sustain itself in a fixed sense and if teaching locals to continue it would have
benefited either the topic or the local need to address the issue.
Lippard’s criticism of the historical limitations of U.S. public art provided
clues as to how one could address Deller’s apparent lack of sustainability. She
explained how Britain had historically “taken the lead” within public arts
development by “appointing town artists as liaisons within communities;” it has
been an “effective mode” for them but has never “caught on in the US.”56 Deller
was fully aware of this disparity as he often felt he had to explain his technique
and approach to those in and outside of the art world. Notions of socially based
art have been prominent in Europe since the early 1990s but as Deller pointed out
it only recently began to catch on in America.57 In this way his piece contributed
in a broadly sustainable way in that its tactics and techniques promoted the social
practice genre to a broader public.
Before social practice developed in the U.S. its ideas were being applied in
Europe. The most prominent example was the debut of the relational aesthetics
theory and practice. Coined by French art critic, curator and philosopher Nicolas
Bourriaud in 1996, the term refers to “art produced by a generation of prominent
56 Ibid., 20.
57 Jeremy Deller, interview by author, telephone from Los Angeles to London, February 4, 2011.
Object Description
| Title | Sites of production: An examination of Jeremy Deller's It is what it is: Conversations about Iraq |
| Author | Kopp, Rebecca Nichole |
| Author email | rkopp@usc.edu; rnkopp@gmail.com |
| Degree | Master of Public Art Studies |
| Document type | Thesis |
| Degree program | Public Art Studies |
| School | School of Fine Arts |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-05 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2011-05-04 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Holte, Michael Ned |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Jacob, Mary Jane Decter, Joshua |
| Abstract | For little over a decade artistic practice in the United States has become intently “focused upon on the sphere of inter-human relations” (Nicolas Bourriaud). Contemporary theorists have presented a variety of ideas concerning the resurgence of this artistic tendency that emerged half a century ago. Using It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq, which was presented across the U.S. and at three major museums in 2009 by British Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, as case study to further delineate this artistic form of expression, this thesis addresses recent theoretical developments within the broader social practice movement. Deller’s project emphasized the complicated nature of these theories in action within the contemporary moment, and testified to its heightened use in the public sphere through shifts higher education and institutional programming. The evaluation of Deller’s piece emphasizes the art-historical importance of this work and more broadly contends with the contemporary conflict between those who debate art’s ability to transform consciousness within the public sphere. |
| Keyword | social practice; Jeremy Deller; Iraq; dialogical practice; public sphere; public art |
| Geographic subject (country) | Iraq; USA |
| Coverage date | 2000/2010 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3881 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Kopp, Rebecca Nichole |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Kopp-4545 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume26/etd-Kopp-4545.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 42 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 37 overarching vision. Deller’s piece was not constructed in this way and did not conceptually identify with this course of action. It is unclear how a work dealing with such a current issue like the political and military conflict in Iraq could sustain itself in a fixed sense and if teaching locals to continue it would have benefited either the topic or the local need to address the issue. Lippard’s criticism of the historical limitations of U.S. public art provided clues as to how one could address Deller’s apparent lack of sustainability. She explained how Britain had historically “taken the lead” within public arts development by “appointing town artists as liaisons within communities;” it has been an “effective mode” for them but has never “caught on in the US.”56 Deller was fully aware of this disparity as he often felt he had to explain his technique and approach to those in and outside of the art world. Notions of socially based art have been prominent in Europe since the early 1990s but as Deller pointed out it only recently began to catch on in America.57 In this way his piece contributed in a broadly sustainable way in that its tactics and techniques promoted the social practice genre to a broader public. Before social practice developed in the U.S. its ideas were being applied in Europe. The most prominent example was the debut of the relational aesthetics theory and practice. Coined by French art critic, curator and philosopher Nicolas Bourriaud in 1996, the term refers to “art produced by a generation of prominent 56 Ibid., 20. 57 Jeremy Deller, interview by author, telephone from Los Angeles to London, February 4, 2011. |
